High speed data networks form part of the backbone of what has become indispensable worldwide data connectivity. Within the data networks, network devices such as switching devices direct data packets from source ports to destination ports, helping to eventually guide the data packets from a source to a destination. Improvements in packet handling, including improvements in path resolution, will further enhance performance of data networks.
A switching device may experience temporary or sustained congestion when incoming bandwidth of the switching device is larger than outgoing bandwidth of the switching device. Specifically, a switching device may receive multiple packets from multiple flows in the network, and those packets may be directed toward the same destination port in the network. The incoming bandwidth of the switching device may be larger than the destination port capacity. In this case, the received packets need to be temporarily stored within the switching device until the congestion subsides.